Friday 20 November 2015

Thought bubble: Leeds Comic Con

It's been ages since I last posted but I've been very busy sorting out some short stories as well as entering competitions. I recently went to Thought Bubble the comic convention in Leeds. It was a very busy event and got to take a portfolio with me to submit to the 2000ad competition. I got it critiqued by Peter Docherty (who incidentally also looked at my portfolio in 2002 Bristol comic con), Conor Boyle and Tom Foster. It was all very constructive. I also met with a host of small press publisher and hopefully some work will come about through it.

I travelled up with a Charles Cutting , artist /writer of Kadath and artist for Steamhamer who was selling his work at Sloth Comics





Above is my submission for the competition. Although it didn't make the final the main points I need to develop more, as critiqued by Tom Foster, were the way the panels link to each other, specifically in page one 2nd to 3rd panel. The real world elements need to be better drawn and more space was needed for dialogue specifically in page 4.
Pete Docherty commented further on the finish and structure of my line work and where I need to improve. being more purposeful with one brush stroke instead of using many to convey a form and committing to the line work and making things less scribbly.

One of the main positives was that it was kept visually interesting with good varying panels.

Conor looked at different work The Teleguuth story and commented that I need more distance variation especially in the first 2 pages.

Further more I got to watch the artists mentioned and others at work which is always interesting and educational. At one point I watched Kev Walker work and before I knew it an hour and a half had passed.

Also by chance I met Neil R Williams, someone I went to Chesterfield college with, who's created his own comic Carcass and Slime.

Wednesday 9 September 2015

Jonny Ives and submissions for St Just's Freedom Exhibition

With the summer holidays over it's back to the grind.
 I thought I'd put up this caricature I painted in the summer of Jonathan Ives editor of the Leisure review http://www.theleisurereview.co.uk/

I meet Jonny through our daughter's ballet class where afterwards the children clamber into the.... basket?... of his bike and he cycles up the hill to the cafĂ© where they all run riot and let off some steam. I thought about a more humorous portrayal at first, thanks to some of the Photos Jonny kindly passed on to me, but decided against it as it wouldn't be very flattering.

 
This took 3 and a half  hours of work in the end.
 
Next is a submission for St Just http://www.st-just-humour.fr/
They're mainly pieces I 'd already put up but there are some new ones I specifically did on the theme they'd set  'Freedom'
 
I took inspiration from Norman Rockwell's illustrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt's 4 freedoms:
Freedom of Speech
Freedom to Worship
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear ..
 
and added and over bearing leader watching in the background.
 
 

Wednesday 5 August 2015

Paul and Nicola

 
This is a caricature of my friend and his lovely wife who were recently married. Congratulations to them both. I wish them the very best.

Thursday 23 July 2015

Bury Knowle Library

This is an ink drawing I recently finished. I thought with the recent painting of the museum out of the way it'll be nice to draw another building, or at least finish one I started a while ago.
 
This was started a few summers ago when Angela had Ellie for the morning and I had some time to myself, so went and drew the Local library. I spent maybe an hour or so sketching it out in my sketch book purely as a practice piece, but looking at it again last summer I felt I wanted to take it further so traced it onto watercolour paper with the notion of painting it when I had the time. Instead while, inking it, I liked the effect the paper had on the ink lines so decided to leave it uncoloured. I left it unfinished due to other things going on and completely forgot about it until Angela said she'd like to hang it up at her office, so I dug it out and finished it, now it's mounted and framed ready for her to take to work.
 
 



Tuesday 21 July 2015

Portrait: Ellie Contemplating

 
 
Although she's often a happy child I see her very often just watching the things happening around her. In nursery, foundation and year one, the teachers have all commented on her tendency to hang back and thoughtfully observe before carrying out her tasks.
 
 
 
This portrait of Ellie is produced in oil paint. It's taken around 32 hours of work and I based it one main reference photo and used two extra photos to help with the face.

Friday 17 July 2015

Oxford Art comp entry

The painting is finally finished with all the obscure little details added. On screen it probably doesn't look too different from what I last posted but I still think it made a difference. Now I just need to let it dry, then varnish, photograph and frame it and it'll be ready for submission. Working time about 50 hours of drawing and painting time, discounting prep work.
 
 
While I'm immersed in oil paints I thought I'll paint my first portrait in years. This is a work in progress of Ellie in a contemplative mood. This is about 25 hours of painting time so far, I reckon another full day should finish it.
Have to hurry though, school holiday's about to start and I expect my time for working will spiral downwards. 


Thursday 16 July 2015

Monday 13 July 2015

Commandant Barnaby Joyce

 
This is based on the May news story of Australia's agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce gunning for Jonny Depp's doggies. I think Depp, filming the ...( lost count) ...th Pirates of the Caribbean, smuggled his dogs into Australia to keep him company and Joyce blew a gasket over the legalities of it.

Friday 10 July 2015

Russell Brand Vs Katie Hopkins

 
This is an idea from my wife a week or so after the elections. I just couldn't find the time to draw it then. Although a couple of months late, I thought it'll be fun to do as they seem to be such polarising personalities.
 
I think Russell Brand said he'll stick a fire work up his back side and light it if Tories won a majority and Katie Hopkins said she'll leave the country if Labour won.
 

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Oils part 4

 
It's about 44 hours in and it's nearly there. I figure another 5 or so hours, just need to pick out some extra details.
After, I'll need to get it photographed properly.  

Tuesday 7 July 2015

Learn kickboxing

 
Finished with slight amendments form the line drawings. These could fit in an A4 frame although it may seem a be a bit cramped. The actual paper size is 36cm H x 27W. Some of the paper around the caricatures  are cropped to fit my scanner.
 
These are about 2 and a half hours of work each.
 
 
 
 




Thursday 2 July 2015

Oils part 3

 
This is about 32 hours of work and most of the more intricate details have been filled in now. Maybe I can maybe loosen up now. First though I need to revisit the site again. and take a another look at the right lower corner. Every time I visit it's obscured by several cars, so I'll have to make a more concerted study and make some educated guesses to get a better represntation.
 
 

One of the real issues I found with painting this is the perspective and how it works. With a camera you take a photo and you get a fixed point whereas, originally drawing this from life, the point of perspective moves when my eyes move across to look at a different part of the building.

Wednesday 1 July 2015

Learn Kickboxing

The caricatures have been inked and are ready for watercolour. This is a group of kickboxing instructors based in the midlands (apart from the last image).
It's been difficult trying to balance the time painting the museum and getting on with the caricatures and with another art competition looming I'd better get a move on.






Wednesday 24 June 2015

Caricatures Rowdy Ronda and H-bomb Henderson

Carrying on from previous mma caricatures I decided to draw the UFC's current women's bantamweight champ 'Rowdy ' Ronda Rousey. She's arguably the most popular and recognisable MMA fighter at the moment and that includes when standing by her male counterparts. Rousey is a medallist in the Olympics for judo and fans gave her the nick name 'Arm collector' as she finished her first 11 bouts (amateur and professional) by armlock. Her 'Rowdy' nickname came from love of pro wrestling and she asked Rowdy Roddy Piper if she took the same nick name.   

Next to Rousey is Dan Henderson, a two time Olympian in wrestling. Henderson has an impressive fight record and won some of the most notable championships.At 44 he's still extremely dangerous. He's had many nicknames in the past, 'Dangerous', 'Hollywood', 'Decision' and recently just Hendo. He has an iron jaw and explosive right hand. Due to this his fans have nicked named his right hand 'H-Bomb'.

Ronda is probably be the last one I'll colour on computer for the fighters. I wanted to concentrate on watercolour as seen on the Hendo piece. I have a few caricatures to do for an old friend and needed the final artwork to be coloured for framing. They're work in progress at the moment but can be seen below.







Oxford art comp - oils part 2

 
It's all slowly moving along now and I think I'm starting to establish a sense of depth with the painting. The building's are starting to look more solid and the recent visit to the museum allowed me to make some corrections to the path in the front of the museum (as it was originally obscured by parked cars) and to figure out the foliage on the far right. I'll most likely need to make a few more visits as the painting progresses.
This is about 17 hours of work so far.
 
For now, It's time for a break and put this on hold while I get on with some caricature work.
 
 

Friday 19 June 2015

Oxford art comp - oils part 1

 
 
I spent a few hours yesterday working in the sky and the furthest buildings and trees. I was very tentative so didn't get as much done as I had hoped. I'm fairly happy with the building but it's the trees by it I struggled with. I couldn't find a way of painting the distant trees that I was happy with.
 
 
 
So today I went back to the museum to look at the trees, the ones furthest away, the big tree in the middle and the foliage for the foreground. I also looked at the lower left of the building and ice cream cart as it was blocked by cars on the day I started painting. It was still obscured by cars though.
 
The sketches can be seen here and were very quickly done but I think it'll help me when I tackle the tree and foreground foliage just because it gave me an ideal of how the twigs and branches hang from the trunk.  

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Oxford art comp ( work in progress)

With the trip to Lancaster Comics Day and meeting about how to possibly progress with the 299 book out of the way I finally found time to continue a little more on the painting of the university museum.
 
It's looking pretty rough at the moment. Some of the details from before were a bit faint and I felt I had to add a bit more detail and shadows before breaking out the oils.
 I find I'm working a little more hesitantly compared to when I paint animals or people, perhaps it's the lack of familiarity with painting buildings.
 
Time wise it's taken about ten hours in total to get to this stage of painting( 6hrs from day one and 4 hrs today) and that's not including the sketchbook work in preparation to tackling this.
 
 
.

Saturday 6 June 2015

Oxford Art Prize- unfinished

For this competition I thought I'd work in my most comfortable medium, which is oils. However due to the extended drying time I thought it'd be wise to begin in a faster drying medium such as acrylic. I didn't want to take a wet painting onto the bus.
 
This is my unfinished effort for the day of the competition. I got to the site fairly early and managed to get my first choice of where I wanted to draw from. The prep work to determine where I wanted to draw from can be seen on my facebook page. This is almost 6 hours of work.


 About 3.5 hrs of measuring and pencil lines before the last 2.5 hrs going over with thin acrylic paint. This way I won't lose the detail before I start adding colour as pencil lines on primed surfaces tend to smudge and disappear very easily.

 I pretty happy with the painting although parts of it looks a little empty. This is because I  left out the foliage of the centre tree and the foliage from the trees on the right. I just didn't think I needed to add them in at this stage. I felt the details I need before adding colour are now in place.

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Encaenia: finished

 
Following on from the last post, this is the finished water colour, scanned and ready for submission. The way it was painted can be seen on my facebook page Waivisuals, Norm Chung Illustration.
 
Although water colour is still relatively new to me I'm beginning to feel comfortable in using it.

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Encaenia

This is my unfinished entry for the Cheltenham illustration award, inked and ready for watercolour. The theme for this is "Tales of the city".
 
 
 
Living in Oxford I wanted this piece to be based in the city. I chose the Encaenia because it seems to be a well known event and Wikipedia states that the most famous Encaenia is the ceremony at Oxford University.

After establishing the idea, this is where I start to move away from reality and inject a bit of fun. I wanted this illustration to include popular fictional characters instead of real ones.

I wanted a range of literary characters that have a connection to Oxford, whether created or part created, established or set in Oxford. The characters I picked were from The Hobbit, Morse, Brideshead Revisited, Lord Peter Whimsey, The Golden Compass, Winnie the Witch, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Alices Adventures in Wonderland.

Rather than make the faces up I wanted, where possible, to use faces of the actor/ actress who portrayed these characters or look at existing artwork. The fun part and in keeping with my recent work, was to present it in caricature.
 
For the backdrop I first intended to use the Radcliff Camera but after an initial sketch I thought the building was too big to use and if I concentrated on a small section it wouldn't be recognisable enough. I then looked at the Bridge of sighs before settling on the Sheldonian Theatre. I thought the Sheldonian was more suited to what I needed, plus the heads were, I thought, very recognisable .
 
(My Facebook page will show my initial sketches and roughs leading up to the black line art shown here on this page.)
 
 

Jerry Adams invites Prince Charles...

With their historic hand shake out of the way Jerry invites Charles for a spot of trampolining.
 
 
Ever since the article came out that Jerry Adams trampolines naked with his dog, I thought it'd be fun draw something based around this.
 
 
 

Wednesday 13 May 2015

General Election Fallout - David Cameron

 
I had an idea while drawing Farage, Miliband and Clegg. Because of their joint glum expressions, I thought a dancing, jolly David Cameron would fit in quite nicely offering a nice contrast.
 
Of course it does make it seems like he's gloating.

 

General Election Fallout - Nigel Farage

 
Nigel Farage is usually caricatured with a over jubilant demeanour. Mouth wide open as if he's about to deafen you with a roaring laugh. However I think the disappointment was clear for all to see when he failed in his bid to capture South Thanet, resulting in him stepping down as UKIP leader. Still, on the bright side, he can feel the love from his party, as UKIP rejected his resignation, while enjoying a nice pint   

General Election Fallout - Ed Miliband

I illustrated Ed Miliband looking pretty glum due to the Labour party's recent loss and him stepping down as leader, but in reality he's probably not that unhappy as he's holidaying away in Ibiza.